


So Sure

by auselysium



Category: Coronation Street
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 23:19:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8917051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auselysium/pseuds/auselysium
Summary: Billy has decided to return to the Church.  How will Todd take the news and how will they move forward, together?





	

He’d been so sure. Nearly giddy, so much like the first time his holy calling had overwhelmed him.

With total confidence, Billy had walked into No. 11 and joyfully proclaimed his plans to return to the Church to an unsuspecting Todd like the Angel Gabriel himself.

But this revived faith had blinded him. He’d been so flooded by this new found assertion that he needn’t sacrifice one for the other that he hadn’t even thought of Todd’s reaction. Of how Todd’s sensitive, already once defaulted upon soul, would hear the news.

“Course you are.” He’d muttered, almost to himself. Then he’d patted Billy on the knee as the tone of his voice constricted. “I’m glad for you,” he’d said as he’d forced the most painful, broken smile across his lips. That look alone had caused Billy’s exhilaration to falter. Because he’d known that Todd just didn’t understand yet. It was all going to be ok; Billy was going to make it ok.

Todd however had already gotten up, put on his coat and made excuses about going to check in on his mum at the hospital.

“Pat’s getting released this afternoon and she could probably use some help getting him home,” he’d rambled unable to look Billy in the eye.

“I can come…” Bill had started, feeling breathless, but still just as sure that if only he could put his scurrying thoughts together and explain, everything would be fine.

“No, you’re alright,” he’d said curtly. And all things considered maybe it’s better for you to find some place else to stay tonight. We’re going to have to get used to spending the night apart again anyway, aren’t we?”

His voice and chin had wavered and Billy had stared, dumbstruck at his retreating back, still a bit baffled as the door had slammed.

He’d not heard from Todd the rest of the day and his texts had gone unanswered.

And now a day later, that fervor to return to his life in the church has been replaced by an equally urgent need to repair things with Todd. He needed to make things with Todd ok because it isn’t only that he shouldn’t _have_ to give up his life in the church to have a life with Todd, it’s that there is no _point_ of his life in the church without a life with Todd.

A life with God is empty without the earthly love and companionship of a lifelong partner. But a life with Todd away from the church and community that provided him with such support would also be a half-life.

He knocks on the door, unsure about using the key in his pocket that he’d been coming and going with for the past few weeks. He’s not sure whether he’s disappointed or relieved when Eileen answers.

“Morning, Billy,” she says. Her voice is sweet and empathetic.

“Pat make it home alright?”

“That’s sweet of you to ask. He’s upstairs resting but I don’t really think that’s why you’re here,” she says with a polite smile.

Billy blushes. “Ah, no. It’s not.”

“Todd’s just through,” she says with a nod over her shoulder, then adds in a whisper. “I’m off to the shops, give you two some time alone.”

Todd is sitting at the table, turned towards the door as if he’d been waiting with a cup of tea between his hands. When Billy enters he sets the cup aside and rubs his palms together with contemplative concentration. A fleeting wonder of how warm his hands must feel passes through Billy’s sub conscious.

“You spoken with the bishop yet?” He asks without warning, his eyes still cast down.

“I did, yeah, this morning.”

“And?”

Billy shrugs, not prepared for how emotionless Todd seems. “He’s pleased. With my decision.”

“Course he is.” Todd sits back, arms and legs crossing. “He’s won, hasn’t he?”

It’s spiteful and mean, and Billy realizes he probably deserves it. So he simply gives Todd a contrite look and waits.

“Where’d you stay last night?” Todd asks after another moment.

“Eva’s.”

Todd sighs. Rises to meet Billy behind the sofa. “I know what I said yesterday. But I...” His fingers catch the open collar of Billy’s coat, his face morphing into all things plaintive and sad. “You should have come home.”

It’s soft and pleading and all Billy needs to hear.

“I’m sorry about how I reacted yesterday but I _was_ hurt,” Todd begins. “I mean, of course I’ll support you whatever you choose, but it just caught me off guard, you know? Things have been so good these past few week and I really thought we were moving on, you know, in a new way together and I don’t know, I let myself start imagining this future that we might have,” a handsome blush falls across Todd’s cheeks as he smiles just enough for the lines around his eyes to engage. It does something seriously intense to Billy’s insides. “I have to admit, it was a pretty nice looking future.”

“You don’t think I’ve been imagining that same future?” Billy murmurs, stepping in close. “That I don’t still want that same future with you, even now?”

“But we can’t have that anymore, can we? Not if you go back.”

Billy takes a hold of Todd’s hands, holding them firm and steady. “What I realized yesterday, and what I should have told you yesterday instead of barging in here like some mad zealot, is that I have never been so sure about two things in my entire life.” Billy’s smile, warm and wide, is met by a hesitant but attentive Todd. “The first, is that I am meant to spend my life serving God and preaching his good work to my community.”

Todd’s face falls, just as Billy had expected, but before his chin can even dip towards his chest, Billy has his hands, cupped tenderly, on either side of his face catching that beautiful gaze with his own.

“The second, is that I want to live every day of that life _with_ _you_.”

His voice is only just above a whisper. But the words, so honest and heartfelt, are rich and warm. Todd’s face morphs this time too, but into something much closer to amazement. They’d both been working on the same, unspoken assumption that this - the two of them together - was endgame but to hear to spoken, for Billy to speak it, is beautifully overwhelming.

“But how?” Todd whispers back.

“I have no idea,” Billy says, truthfully. He laughs as his hands slip to Todd’s shoulders. “And that...that’s terrifying. Which is why I need you by my side. I need someone who is defiant, opinionated and principled. Who can give as good as he gets and who won’t back down from a fight.”

“Never thought I’d hear those listed as my good qualities.”

Billy grins at him.

“If I’m really going to do this, if I’m really going to fight the church so I can live my life the way I deserve while still being a vicar, things are going to get a lot nastier than phone calls from a certain Mr. Harrison.”

Todd rolls his eyes at that but snickers gently through his nose too. “So, we just live our lives as if the church you work for doesn’t completely disapprove of us being together?”

“They don’t completely disapprove,” Billy corrects quickly. “But yeah, that’s the best plan I’ve got.”

“So…if we decided we want to keep living together?”

“I’d be sure to leave you plenty of wardrobe space in the vicarage and we could invite anyone who has a problem with it over for dinner to prove we’re no different than any other couple.”

Todd wets his lips and nods thoughtfully. He eases his body in closer, hooking his forefinger around the matching digit on Billy’s hand. “And if one day, we decide that we maybe...we might want to make things...official?”

Billy swallows down his elation and his complete adoration for Todd in that moment. “I’d say yes,” he states catching a glimpse of Todd’s gleeful, sparkling eyes. “And invite the bigots to the wedding.”

Billy can’t help but steal a kiss, quick, but one that ends with both of them breathing lightly. He’s made Todd blush, not at easy feat. But soon enough, Todd has his hands on Billy’s chest, quelling the levity of the moment.

“And what happens,” he stops and starts again. “What happens if we fight the good fight but it reaches a point where there’s just nothing for it and you have to choose. What then?”

Todd’s insecurity creeps through in the strangest of ways, in the saddest of moments. Billy hears it in the slowing of his speech. Sees it in the minute twitch of his lips.

“Then I walk away from the church in a heartbeat.”

He’s close enough he hears the stutter in Todd’s breath.  Relief.

“I’ve got to try, Todd. I owe it to myself, to you and me, to all those who'll come after me who’ll find themselves in the same unfair situation. So will you stand by me? Fight with me?  What do you say?”

Todd stands tall, jaw lifted and strong. “I say, let the battle commence, General Mayhew.”

Their embrace is tight. Tight and never more sure.

**Author's Note:**

> This was basically me trying to make sense of WHY Billy would go back to the church and HOW they could continue to function as a couple. Very hopeful we get something similar on screen next week!


End file.
